HTV-4 Undocks

HTV-4 Undocks

The Japanese cargo ship HTV-4 will undock from the International Space Station today at 16:00 UTC (12 noon EDT). Hopefully you get to see it LIVE above. If you miss the live broadcast, don’t worry I’m sure it will be up on YouTube shortly and I’ll switch out the USTREAM player.

The HTV-4 be removed from the Harmony module by Expedition 26 Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg using the robotic arm. The HTV-4 has been attached to the Harmony module since delivering over 3.5 tons of supplies and parts on August 9th.

The HTV-4 was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan on August 3rd.

The docking room will be needed for the arrival of Orbital Sciences Corp’s Cygnus cargo vehicle in just a couple of weeks. Launch date is scheduled for 17 September 2013. This will be another one of those demonstrations missions, so it will be quite exciting.